Zaha should be able to switch. His only games for England were youth national teams and two senior team friendlies.
speaking of the devil: http://www.africatopsports.com/2016/11/18/cote-divoire-wilfried-zaha-chez-elephants/ So CIV chasing both Zaha and Bakayoko (of Monaco). With Gervinho out for a indefinite amount of time, CIV look to reinforce the mid with two outstanding players.
Bakayoko would be a real steal. A player verging on the French national team. I don't know if they need to reinforce the midfield though. Kessie and Seri are much better than either Zaha or Bakayoko, Seri arguably been the Ligue 1 player of the year so far this season. Remarkable given he was a noname last season. Kessie has undoubtedly been the breakthrough player in Serie A this season. That said Cote d'Ivoire are missing a third quality midfielder. Maybe Angban can make the grade, but that's not certain. Right now though the positions Cote d'Ivoire really needs to reinforce in attack. If Jonathan Kodjia is your best striker than that shows how far the team has regressed. I would pick Seydou Doumbia to come back. For whatever reason England and Italy didn't work out for him (have no idea why), but he's back scoring goal after goal in Switzerland and on course for another topscorer award.
Must be demoralizing that Ivory Coast's best striker prospect, Sebastien Haller, is a binationaux (Francais-Ivoirenne) whose just come off scoring a hat-trick against Cote d'Ivoire in a 5-1 drubbing between each other's Espoirs sides. Oh yea.. he plays for France. Jean-Philippe Gbamin, another Ivoirenne binationaux, started for France that match in defense alongside Kimpembe (a Congolais). On the brightside, Soulemayne Coulibaly and Assane Gnoukouri started for CIV. But all in all, not an impressive U-23 side at all: http://www.africatopsports.com/2016/11/04/amical-u23-liste-de-cote-divoire-contre-france/
Kouassi Eboue is very highly rated as well. Chris Bedia isn't a half-bad prospect either and is a starter at club level. Also a lot of 18 year olds in that squad for Cote d'Ivoire, so lets give them time.
Sebastien Haller is tearing it up in Utrecht, I think if he was to choose CIV, he'd automatically be their top striker.
I wasn't comparing Also Haller is 22, so saying he's better than 18-19 year olds is still yet to be seen. Naturally he's above Bedia just saying some of the 18-19 year olds may yet be at Haller's level. I'm also still not completely convinced Coulibaly isn't good enough... especially given the quality of goals he's been scoring. That said he could be another Papiss Cisse
Talking about super talent and Cote d'Ivoire European born striking gems. What about Moise Kean? 16 years old and plays for Juventus...
I posted him last page. He's already playing for Italy's youth teams and made his Serie A debut over the weekend. Barring unforeseen circumstances he's going to dawn the Blue and white. Another promising Binationaux prospect is Joris Gnagnon of Rennes. A CB whose on the French U-20/Espoirs radar. Aswell as Yann Karamoh of Caen whose also represented France in the U-17 and 18 levels. And Pierre Zebli of Perugia whose being courted by the Italian U-20s coach. A realistic addition to the new CIV side could be Seko Fofana of Udinese. Has already represented France youth sides, but open to making the switch to CIV. Honestly... there's talent for days on that National team.
This isn't new, Gnaly Cornet prefers to play for France over his birth nation CIV: http://www.sportif225.com/actu/football-cornet-prefere-france/ lol... France gets first dibs and I will continue to reiterate this.
Country of birth normally does. He like many other players was born and raised in France. Why wouldn't he prefer to play for France? At best he knows Cote d'Ivoire from a few family visits, nothing more.
He was born in Ivory Coast and didn't immigrate till like 8 years of age. lol. He knows where the glory is.
OK, that one is different. If I were to accept what you're saying I guess that's why English-Nigerian footballers are jumping ship for Nigeria. I think they rightfully so feel Nigeria has a better international future than England... As it stands playing for England isn't any more prestigious... Probably even less so and even less prospective. Internationally Victor Moses has achieved more internationally than any Englishman on the current English team... As to France: Still think the current French squad is overrated. Highlighted by Pogba the most overrated footballer in modern footballing. They made the Euro final, but they were thoroughly outplayed by Germany in the semis, which points to the problems that are still in the team. They also were outplayed by the vastly inferior Nigeria team of 2014 and needed a dumb ref + rugby tactics to win the game. France is a bit too much built around the names, but they don't really seem to click all that well together. This team will never win anything and the Euro final was the best they can ever count on.
My thing is.. how many Nigerians have actually gone on to represent England on the senior level full time? I'm literally going blank on names. Can I get a comprehensive list? I feel like the difference between the two is that Nigerians have no history of actually flirting with that NT, unlike Africans in France, whoms' national team DOES have a vast history of famous footballers that were of African descent such as Zizou, Desailly, Vieira, etc. so it's just simply more common for them to jump ship to France than for Nigerians to England which would explain why you hardly see Naijas in their senior NT and a ton on France's simply because that's just been the trend for so long.
Talk about keeping your talent if you're Nigeria. Cole was an average striker and Alli is a young upstart. Not bad.
(p.s. I knowingly omitted Ross Barkley ) I think its more a question of current crop. There seem to be a lot of players on the up with Nigerian heritage: Tammy Abraham Jordan Ibe Dominic Iorfa Fikayo Tomori Ovie Ejaria Ademola Lookman Obi Ojo Dominic Solanke Tariq Uwakwe Ola Aina There is definitely a major battle ongoing between Nigeria and England right now. Not all of the above will make it, but so far Nigeria obviously has the upper hand.
I think Nigeria will continue to have the upper hand. That Fikayo Tomori kid is an interesting one.. iirc he almost represented Canada.. lol
It would be quite a shame if the 2014 team made it further than this team. But I've seen this happen before, Japan being an example (the 2010 team that was inferior on paper made it further than in 2014).
Damn. I may yet have to eat humble pie on Nicolas Pepe... Two goals in two games... Both quality goals.